On the Turning Away
by ka-mia2286
Summary: A short storysong-fic on how Jacob became involved with rescuing children from the Centre


Disclaimer: Pink Floyd wrote "On the Turning Away" I'm borrowing it for a bit. I don't own the Pretender either

* * *

Authors Note: This story fits in with the Genesis series. It takes place around the time Sam's parents are killed by the Centre, but not before Sam is taken a placed under Jacob's care. You don't need to have read Genesis, Black Files, Idle Hands, nor Exodus to understand this story.

* * *

On The Turning Away

* * *

Jacob entered the Centre flashing his ID at the guard at the front desk. The guard nodded at the doctor, and Jacob continued on his way to his office. He paid no attention to a small boy tears streaming down his face as he was led away by a sweeper.

Jacob entered his office setting his briefcase on his desk. He slightly loosened his tied, and then proceeded to roll up his sleeves. With over a dozen charts to review and an experiment to conduct later that afternoon, Jacob had a long day a head of him.

* * *

_On the turning away_

_From the pale and downtrodden_

_And the words they say_

_Which we won't understand_

_"Don't accept that what's happening_

_Is just a case of others' suffering_

_Or you'll find that you're joining in_

_The turning away"

* * *

_

"Jacob I need to talk to you," Catherine said entering Jacob's office.

"I am quite busy Catherine, could we do this over lunch," Jacob replied looking up from his charts.

"Please Jacob, this is important. I need your help," Catherine begged. Jacob met Catherine's blue eyes and saw the desperation that appeared in them.

"I think I can take a break. These files are making my eyes blurry anyhow," Jacob conceded, placing his fountain pen on his desk. "Now, what is it you would like to discuss?"

"Not here. The gardens" Catherine said glancing at the camera in the corner of the room. Jacob raised his eyebrows but said nothing in reply. He decided to humor Catherine and followed the chairman's wife out to the Centre gardens.

Jacob was fond of the gardens, not as fond of them as his brother Sydney, but all the same Jacob enjoyed spending time there. The Centre gardens housed rare and exotic plants found all over the world.

Jacob stood fingering the leaves of an orchid, as he waited for Catherine to speak.

"You don't see it do you?" Catherine asked softly.

"See what?" Jacob asked his chestnut brown eyes meeting Catherine's blue ones.

"What's is happening here. You don't see what they are doing to the children. You don't hear the children crying for their parents as they are being beaten," Catherine said shaking her head in pity.

"Catherine the children are not being beaten. They are happy here. They are safe here," Jacob replied.

"No Jacob, they were happy. They were safe. Jacob, many of these children have been taken from their families. Don't you hear them cry for their mothers and father's at night?"

"It's just homesickness, Catherine. And these children have not been taken from their homes. They are sent here by their parents so that the can learn to control, to hone, their abilities, these amazing talents they have been given," Jacob argued.

"You are wrong, these children, the majority of them were stolen out of their beds in the middle of the night. Others watched their parents murdered in front of their eyes. Yes, I will grant you that the children are being taught to use their abilities, but for what reasons. Why do we have a five year old boy designing chemical weapons?"

"This is about Jarod," Jacob sighed. "Catherine, Richard, and Raines said you were becoming to attached to the boy. I thought they told you to stay away from him. He won't adjust if you keep indulging his fantasies of how he was taken from his family. Jarod's parents sent him here."

"No Jacob you brought Jarod here," Catherine said.

"What are you talking about Catherine. I did no such thing," Jacob replied, and yet Catherine could see that something inside Jacob's mind clicked.

"They used a drug on you Jacob, to control you, to make you do as they wished. They had you bring Jarod to the Centre. They then did a new procedure... a reeducation to make you forget," Catherine told the doctor.

"No," Jacob said shaking his head. "I don't believe you." But Catherine could see a shadow of doubt in his eyes.

"Here take this," Catherine said pulling out a small silver disk and passing it to Jacob. Jacob reluctantly took the disc, as though afraid of what information it would contain.

"What will I see?" Jacob asked, his voice so soft he was almost whispering.

"The truth. You strapped to a chair October 12, 1963. A drug being administered to you, orders being given," Catherine replied.

"It's not me. It can't be. I was away at a conference that week of October," Jacob replied. Catherine sadly shook her head.

"No Jacob, they just made you believe that you were."

"I-I," Jacob stuttered at a lost for words.

"Watch the disk Jacob. When you're ready you know where to find me. Just promise me you won't look away afterwards Jacob. Remember 'The truth can kill you, or set you free,'."

* * *

_It's a sin that somehow_

_Light is changing to shadow_

_And casting it's shroud_

_Over all we have known_

_Unaware how the ranks have grown_

_Driven on by a heart of stone_

_We could find that we're all alone_

_In the dream of the proud

* * *

_

Jacob watched the DSA footage in shock. How could the Centre do such a thing to him, Raines of all people. Jacob had confided to the doctor the horrors Jacob and his twin had been subjected to when they were children at Dachau. And Raines goes and betrays the trust Jacob had in him.

It was ironic really, Raines forced Jacob to commit the same crime to a little boy that Jacob had been forced to endure during those horrible years in Dachau. Like Jarod, Jacob was forced to endure endless test after endless test. Why Jacob hadn't see it amazed him. And yet he knew why, he wanted to believe that the terrible things that happened overseas could never happen in America. Jacob now knew that he needed to find Catherine. He had to learn more of the horrors that were occurring within the Centre.

Jacob pulled out the DSA and closed the DSA player. Pocketing the disk he made his way to Catherine's office. He rapped his knuckles twice on her door before entering.

"You watched the disk," Catherine said observing the man's face.

"Yes," Jacob replied. "Catherine I need to know, what else is going on here that I am not seeing?"

"To learn that Jacob you just need to take a walk along the corridors of one of the lower sub-levels," Catherine told him.

"I think I shall," Jacob replied. Catherine nodded her head, and Jacob left her office. He walked over to the elevator pressing the down button. The elevator dinged when it reached Jacob's floor and he entered the empty car. At random he chose one of the lower sub levels. A minute or two later Jacob exited the elevator on SL-21.

The corridors were rather dark, lit only by flickering light from the florescent bulbs. Jacob's footsteps echoed down the empty corridor. Thinking that he heard something Jacob paused, and strained his hearing. It took a moment or two but the sound of what he head was unmistakable.

It was the sound of sobbing. Jacob followed the cries of the unknown person, all the while having a sickening feeling that they were the cries of a child. He continued down the corridor, all the while the sobs growing more clearer. As Jacob rounded the corner the sobbing changed to screaming.

Jacob quickened his pace to a run, wincing each time his footsteps echoed. Jacob came to a stop outside of a door that was slightly ajar, he pushed it open to get a better view. He would later wished he hadn't.

In the room stood a sweeper nearly twice Jacob's size. The sweeper towered over a young girl who appeared to be around the age of twelve. The sweeper hit her repeatedly. Jacob stood transfixed, horrified at the sight he beheld.

"Please!" The girl screamed, bringing Jacob out of his shock.

"Let her go," Jacob growled. The sweeper stopped and turned to face Jacob.

"Who the hell are you?" the sweeper asked.

"I am her trainer, now let her go," Jacob commanded. The sweeper threw back his head and laughed at the thought of a man half his size telling him what to do. Jacob looked over at the little girl who was looking up at Jacob in awe. Jacob nodded his head gesturing at the door, and mouthed the word "run".

The little girl need no other incentive, she quickly scrambled off of the floor. She ran past the sweeper and by Jacob.

"Freeze," the sweeper yelled, the girl paid him no heed, and the sweeper ran after her unholstering his gun.

"No don't," Jacob said grabbing the sweepers arm. The sweeper flung Jacob to the floor and continued chasing the girl. Jacob was momentarily daze, from his head coming in contact -rather hard- with the floor. As he got up off the floor Jacob heard a gunshot followed by a scream. Jacob scrambled out of the room, and out into the corridor.

His breath caught in his throat, as he saw the sprawled body of the little girl in the florescent light. Her blood pooled from under her, her green eyes stared lifelessly at the ceiling.

"No," Jacob gasped making his way over to the girl.

"She shouldn't of run," The sweeper spoke holstering his gun.

"She was an innocent little girl," Jacob replied angrily, his accent becoming thicker, as he kneeled next to the body of the dead girl.

"A little girl maybe. Innocent never. She could do things you wouldn't believe."

"Her name, what was it?" Jacob asked as closed the girls eyes.

"What?"

"Her name you buffoon, what was it?" Jacob yelled.

"They called her Darla," The sweeper said. Jacob shook his head in disgust.

"And what will happen to her now?" Jacob asked.

"An autopsy will be conducted and she will be incinerated," The sweeper replied flippantly.

"And her parents? Will they be notified?"

"Her parents have believed her to be dead for the past five years," The sweeper said.

* * *

_On the wings of the night_

_As the daytime is stirring_

_Where the speechless unite_

_In a silent accord_

_Using words you will find are strange_

_And mesmerized as they light the flame_

_Feel the new wind of change_

_On the wings of the night

* * *

_

Three day's later, when the chairman had left the country for a meeting with the triumvirate, Jacob meet with Catherine at his home.

"Where is little Miss Parker?" Jacob asked Catherine when she entered his home.

"She and Sammy are at home Emma is watching them for the night," Catherine said passing Jacob her coat.

"And how is young Samuel cooping?"

"The best he can. The poor thing just lost both of his parents. Thank you -and Sydney as well- for talking to him," Catherine said.

"It was the lest we could do," Jacob replied

"Could I get you something to drink Catherine?" Jacob asked her as he hung her coat up on the coatrack.

"Some tea, would be nice," Catherine said sitting on the couch, in front of the roaring fireplace. Jacob nodded his head and disappeared into the kitchen. He reappeared a few moments latter with a tea tray. He poured tea in to two blue china tea cups, and passed one to Catherine.

"Thank you," Catherine said taking a sip.

"W-what can we do to stop this? I mean Catherine that girl was murdered and her parents will never know. And her parents are no the only ones. How many more are there?" Jacob asked.

"Sydney's charge, Jarod is one of them. I know his parents. I've lost contact with them, after Jarod was taken Margaret was pregnant and she and Charles no longer felt safe so they moved away. They have no idea if Jarod is alive or not," Catherine said.

"Is there anyway we get the children out?" Jacob asked.

"I've been working on it. I have a friend who runs an orphanage, and I have spoken to him about bring children there. The problem is getting them out," Catherine stated.

"Catherine I hate to bring this up but, what about Richard? Is there anyway he doesn't know what is going on?"

"Richard is not the man I married, Jacob. I'm no longer sure if I even love him. W-we hit a rough patch a few years back, and things haven't been the same since," Catherine admitted.

"Does he know of your affair with Sydney?" Jacob questioned. Catherine looked up in shock. "He told me. Sydney has never been able to keep much of anything from me. She's his isn't she, Little Miss Parker?"

"Yes," Catherine confessed. "You can't tell him Jacob. Richard would some how find out and he would kill Sydney. I can't bare to think of what he would do to Morgan."

"He believe's for her to be his own daughter does he not?" Jacob asked.

"Sometimes I wonder. I want to get her away from this place Sydney. Her and Sammy both. I-I have the feeling that Allen and Elizabeth were killed so that the Centre would get Sammy. He's a smart boy, not as smart as Jarod, but still. I worry for both him and Morgan," Catherine said.

"We'll get the children out Catherine, all of them. I promised you I wouldn't turn a blind eye any longer. I won't turn away. I let another innocent child be murdered," Jacob said staring into the flames of the fire.

* * *

_No more turning away_

_From the weak and the weary_

_No more turning away_

_From the coldness inside_

_Just a world that we all must share_

_It's not enough just to stand and stare_

_Is it only a dream that there'll be_

_No more turning away?

* * *

_

Jacob snuck into the Centre. He avoided all cameras as he made his way down the stairs to the lower sub-levels. It was a long journey, but the safest route . Keeping out of the eye of the camera Jacob managed to deactivate it. Done with his first task, he walked quickly down one of the Centre's many florescent lit corridors, to a door marked 212.

Using a key one of Catherine's allies had managed to nick, Jacob unlocked the door. He opened the heavy steel door, allowing light to enter the cell, the space was too small, too cold, and gray to bee called a room. From a small cot in the corner of the cell, a young boy sat up, his tiny face tear streaked.

"Hello, my name is Jacob. Would you like to go home?"

* * *

So what'd ya think. Like it? Hate it? Let me know, I can take it. 


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